ToTop Link 1.4 for WordPress is out.
This simple plugin gives WordPress-powered sites an easy way to add a "return to top" link to their pages. You can see it in action on this site, simply scroll down the page a bit and you'll see a "return to top" link appear in the top right.
New in v1.4: This update brings with it the ability to customize the scroll trigger offset -- meaning, instead of…

ToTop Link 1.2 for WordPress is out.
This simple plugin gives WordPress-powered sites an easy way to add a "return to top" link to their pages. You can see it in action here, simply scroll down the page a bit and you'll see a "return to top" link appear.
New in v1.2: You can now completely customize the positioning of the link/graphic. All the pre-sets (top-left, bottom-right, etc.) are stil…

Just a quick update to say SEOSimple 2.1 has been released, and now has a Joomla 2.5 version.
I've also added an option that allows you to define whether you wish your category description to be used as the category page's meta description. Optionally, you can use the content of the top-most article in the category listing. If set to "category description", and no category description is avail…

I'm pleased to announce the release of our latest WordPress plugin, ToTop Link.
This simple plugin gives WordPress-powered sites an easy way to add a "return to top" link to their pages. Rather than explain how it works, simply scroll down the page here and you'll see the link image appear in the top right corner.
Settings allow you easily to adjust the positioning and style to best fit your…

A bit of a landmark co-interview with opensource CMS luminaries Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress) and Dries Buytaert (founder of Drupal) at SchipulCon 2011 in Houston, Texas. Bear with the initial audio -- the irony of tech stuff going wrong is not lost on me either.
Here at Dao By Design we near exclusively build using one or the other, and I couldn't agree with Matt's comment that initial…

After almost exactly two years of no updates, I'm quite happy to announce the release of SEOSimple 2.0 -- now compatible with Joomla 1.6 and Joomla 1.7 as well as Joomla 1.5 .
That's not all -- I've finally fixed a number of small bugs that have been growing dust on my todo list - including fixing the K2 compatibility issue and the occurrence of an "uninitialized strong offset" error.
I've…

I've just released a new WordPress plugin that adds honeypot functionality to the popular (and frankly, awesome) Contact Form 7 plugin for WordPress.
Built out of self-necessity, the Contact Form 7 Honeypot plugin simply gives CF7 users an additional "honeypot" element to use when building their forms. A honeypot, for those unaware, is a spam trap that attempts to prevent spam bots from clo…

In early 2008 Dao By Design added a feature to its China-expat focused community site -- Lost Laowai -- which allowed bloggers focused on China to connect with one another. In the time since the feature has become increasingly popular and outgrew its position as a periphery feature on another site. So, we did the only thing we could: redesigned it, repackaged it, and relaunched it on its own domai…

I'm way (way) behind on announcing the new look and identity of Dao By Design, but cobblers' kids and their shoes, eh?
So, welcome to the new look of Dao By Design. Slicker, more organized (or will be when we get everything in its place), more useful and generally just much much better.
Previously the site utilized Joomla for the main CMS and WordPress for the blog. With the CMS-focused improvem…

And doesn't it look fantastic.
WordPress 3.0 has some features that have been in high demand for some time, and that theme developers have had to muddle their way around when using WordPress as a project's CMS. Namely:
Custom backgrounds & headers (no more custom fields and php wizardry needed)
Shortlinks (our tweets thank you)
Menus (I can't tell you how exited I am to retire the rather…

I need first apologize for the length of time between updates. I have no excuse other than an insane work schedule. I, initially at least, was also trying to hold off releasing a new version until I had some significant bugs to fix or features to add. Perhaps it's a testament to the simpleness of the plugin, but bugs are few and far between.
That said, an encoding bug has been the bane of the plu…

Man, since I released SEOSimple v1.2 a few weeks ago I've learned a massive lesson - WAY too many people are still using servers that employ PHP4 - the php engine that was replaced with PHP5 four years ago.
For anyone that tried to use the plugin with PHP4, I'm sorry about breaking your site. Actually it's an old PHP4 bug that broke your site, but I'll apologize anyway. So sorry I sat my butt dow…

Close on the heels of the release of v1.1 I'm releasing v1.2 of the SEOSimple Joomla 1.5 plugin.
I've just tweaked a few things to better support UTF-8 encoding, word wrapping of the descriptions and better handling of the Section and Category page descriptions.
Please report any problems you have either on the SEO Simple Support Forum, or in the comments on the SEOSimple home page.…

Just a quick note to say that version 1.1 of the SEOSimple plugin has been released. This was just a quick release to add some additional front page title tag configurations.
You can now totally and independently control your Joomla 1.5 front page title tag using the following options:
[optional fp title] | [site title]
[site title] | [optional fp title]
[optional fp title]
[site title]
*…

I've released a new version of autoMetaDescSEO, fixing many of the problems - including the stupid name - of the first release.
I've changed the name to SEOSimple to better reflect the fact that the Joomla 1.5 plugin project has expanded to include a few more useful SEO features.
Briefly, features of SEOSimple include:
- Auto generation of meta description tags for all pages/articles that don't…

When I initially began this blog as an extension of my design business, I wanted a place where I could write about various tips and tricks I come across due to spending an overly large portion of my day online.
Recently I've begun to refocus this blog as being more an outlet to discuss the happenings of Dao By Design, as well as other related news or topics from the field - including design, maki…

The latest release of WordPress has just hit the net, offering some significant design changes and a boatload of new features. As mentioned in my previous post on the site upgrade, I've been using WordPress 2.5 RC since its release mid-March. The first release candidate went to RC2 and on to a stable version in just two short weeks - that's damn impressive. Some of the key new features include:…

For anyone that's been to the site previously, you should immediately notice a rather massive change in the site's design.
When I stitched together the original site back in June last year, I did what I constantly advise clients against - I didn't look ahead. I, wrongly, assumed that the size of the site wouldn't grow and that setting it on top of a CMS was a waste of time.
* shakes head in sham…